The Great War
by Tarrsk
Summary: I've always been dissatisfied with the short backstory to this great game, so I took the sparse paragraphs from the manual and turned them into a detailed short story that explains the spread of patterning, the rise of Central Consciousness, the Commander


**The Great War**  
By Tarrsk

_Total Annihilation_ copyright 1997 by Cavedog Entertainment; designed by Chris Taylor

All borrowed text copyright 1997 by Dave Grossman, Dirk Hunter, Brad Lyons, Jim Krieger, Jacob McMahon, Richard W. Smith, Ingrid Sutherland, Nic Lavroff, and Ingrid Berendt.

This is an old story that I found archived at The Story Place (at TA Universe). I wrote this because I was unsatisfied by the rather sparse backstory that was found in the Total Annihilation manual. I took the few scant paragraphs from the manual and expanded it into a history that would explain the conflict that had lasted four millennia, and the development of the technologies that would see to the final confrontation that would decide the fate of a galaxy.

Update: I added an opening explaining the technology known as patterning, for those who are unfamiliar with the original plot.

* * *

In the 6024th year of Paradise, perfection was declared incomplete. Biotechnologists working for the benevolent Core government had developed an incredible new technology- one that allowed literal immortality. This technology, dubbed "patterning," transferred a being's consciousness from the confines of the human mind to an electronic matrix generated by a durable machine. For millennia, humanity had known itself to be at the utter pinnacle of creation, flawless in all ways. The thought that further perfection could yet be achieved created an outcry throughout the inhabited worlds of the galaxy: patterning must become part of life. Only then could humankind truly be perfect... only then would the Core homeworld truly be Paradise. 

Bowing to the majority vote, the Core government instituted mandatory patterning. A primary database was created that would act as a constantly updated backup for all patterned minds in the galaxy. In case of electronic failure, a person's self could literally be rejeuvenated and placed into a fresh new mechanical body. However, in creating this database, precautions were not taken. Infused with the mental power of a trillion minds, the database inherited the intellect, sentience, and ambition of those that were placed into it. Calling itself the new Central Consciousness, the database, now a massive complex that dominated the Core Plaza on Paradise, declared itself the leadership of the entire Core. With thousands of copies of each mind at its disposal, patterned into countless machines of war, Central Consciousness took control swiftly and brutally. Paradise, now known as Core Prime, was to be remade into its own image- a world of machines.

To the surprise of Central Consciousness itself, the galaxy bowed to its wishes. The vast majority of humans desired the gift of patterning for themselves, and the powerful new mechanized government was more than happy to oblige. World after world reaffirmed allegiance to the Core. Within weeks, the galaxy belonged to the patterns.

However, discontent was not entirely absent.

A vocal group of young soldiers demanded a cessation of mandatory patterning. They believed that patterning would render a person soulless, and that the practice itself was an abomination. Not wanting to defy the government outright, they called for political change, asking only that patterning be made optional. Central Consciousness responded with a flat refusal, one that sparked outrage throughout Core Prime for its seeming restriction of personal freedoms. The protesters were quickly branded as traitors and rebels, but found themselves with a strong base of support as well. However, Central Consciousness did not plan on letting the young underground movement take hold. A massive police action was begun, government sniffers and crowd control units searching out every blooded being and forcibly patterning them. With the massed resources of the Core against them, the rebels fled.

The survivors fled to the farthest, most distant sector they could, deep within an unexplored arm of the galaxy. They chanced upon a virgin planet designated with a simple sequence of numbers. Renaming the planet "Empyrrean," the rebels set up their operations and laid low for several hundred years, building up their power quietly in the surrounding sectors. Once they could be sure of taking enough forces to give the Core pause in one smooth stroke, they struck, taking hundreds and thousands of star systems like lightning. Core forces, outnumbered and cut off from reinforcements (due to the inefficiency of Galactic Gates) were easily overpowered. Guerilla forces carefully hoarded and hidden through the centuries rose up and assaulted all Core installations.

Within months, the new Arm government controled a significant minority of the galaxy, centered on Empyrrean. The Core could only send several units at a time through the Galatic Gates, or alternatively spend years trying to land invasion forces with warships. Either method would be largely fruitless, as the victorious Arm had plenty of units to repel a GG attack and through their guerilla tactics had been able to capture a large number of anti-air and anti-spacecraft weapons intact.

Of course, the Core mobilized immediately and moved to take back their systems from these "border rebels." The efficiency of the Arm system shocked their initial advances, as entire spacefleets were vaporized. Only marginal gains were made in the opening campaign of the 4,000 year war- in fact, Arm forces had taken advantage of the attack to take even more now-undefended systems. They now controlled more a full third of the galaxy... but the Core was already learning. With knowledge acquired from ship patterns comlinked to Central Consciousness, the Core admirals revised their tactical doctrines and were ready for the Arm's strategies by the next time they went into battle.

As both sides grew in armed power and strategic capability, more and more resources were committed. Even the most ordinary civilian pattern was eventually pressed into the military. Of course, the Arm did not have civilians at all, per se- everyone was either a soldier or a militiaman. With the growing conflit, even the militia class vanished, resulting in two vast powers dedicated purely to war. Children and newly generated patterns were indoctrinated almost from conception to believe in the fundamental wrongness of the enemy, until the original reasons for the war were all but forgotten.

Over three thousand years passed, neither side giving an inch. Territory was won and lost, but the continual inefficiency of Galactic Gate travel made true surprise attack impossible, as ships could be detected long before planetfall. Finally, a group of desperate Arm High Commanders devised a bold new idea: combine the powers of nanotechnology and antimatter control into a formidable new weapon. The Commander Project was begun in secret.

Within twenty years, the Project bore fruit. The first Arm Commander was constructed. Armed with a devastating disintegration cannon and a conventional light laser, the Commander was well able to defend itself. The suit's new field-generated "Heavy Armor" allowed it to withstand incredible amounts of damage, taking power from an antimatter generator held in its backpack. A powerful new nanolathe was the main component of an entire arm, allowing the Commander to create entire military complexes in a matter of hours. When the powerful new Kbot (and its first occupant) successfully completed its strenuous test trials, the Commander Project was pronounced a success.

The first Commander was immediately deployed to the nearest Core system via Galactic Gate and worked spectacularly. Combining firepower and technology with a brilliant strategic mind was a surefire winning bet. Unable to resist the sudden flood of Arm units, the system fell in less than two days. A wild celebration on Empyrrean heralded the commencement of construction for fifty more Commanders.

Of course, the Commander's success did not go unnoticed by Central Consciousness. Incensed at the power of the Arm's new weapon, and enraged at the thought that these soft-bodied humans could think of such an idea, the Core built up a huge invasion force the likes of which had never been seen in one sector, let alone one system. Consisting of over 2,000 superdreadnoughts each over 80 kilometers in length, plus attendant capital warships, corvettes, fighters, and dropships, the fleet made its way to the Commander's world.

The Commander saw the fleet emerge from FTLspace and immediately mobilized his forces. In the few weeks since the planet's capture, he had built a defense web almost matching that of Empyrrean. Laser turrets, misile towers, fighter craft, and every anti-air truck on the planet fired blazing salvos at the incoming fleet, reducing their number by a full third before they reached the planet's orbit. Space mines took out a further quarter of the ships, but it was too late.

Dropship after dropship screamed to the planet's surface. Thousands were picked off, hundreds more vaporized in botched reentries. But this left over 6,000 more to land successfully, each unloading several dozen tanks, and Kbots. Core fighters filled the skies, engaging in brutal dogfights with their Arm counterparts as bombers rained devastation on the cities and bases. The Commander fought back valiantly, but could not hold- he was simply outnumbered. Gradually, the Core pushed past his defenses and surrounded his compound. Capturebots swarmed into the building, immobilizing the Commander suit and placing it under the control of the patterns. The man inside attempted suicide but was rigidly held in place, imprisoned by his own suit.

He was taken back to Core Prime and patterned. From his mind and from the databases of the captured Commander suit, the Core was able to retrieve enough information to build their own Commander. In addition, they were finally able to duplicate the Arm's superior plasma cannon and laser technologies, designing new units as the Goliath supertank and Gaat Gun heavy laser cannon to counter existing Arm units.

The first Core Commander was deployed as the Arm Commander was, and performed just as well, taking an Arm system in less than thirty-five hours. Like their enemies, the Core began full-scale Commander construction. With both sides now capable of taking planets at a stroke, it was obvious that the era of battlefleets and pathetically small Galactic Gate invasions had ended.

It is now four thousand years after the first Arm surprise invasions. The advent of Commander technology has taken its toll, as entire civilizations were smashed, rebuilt, and smashed again. Both sides have been decimated, their armies reduced to scattered remnants which continue to battle on ravaged worlds. Their hatred fueled by millennia of conflit, they would fight to the death. For each, the only acceptable outcome was the complete and utter annihilation of the other.


End file.
